Pred, Prey Or Monster?
by Mr.McCrazyFace
Summary: You hear a lot about Nick and Judy. But what about the rest of Zootopia? Is it all sunshine and rainbows? No. Not by a long shot. There are tons of messed up people in Zootopia. And this guy... well... he's probably pretty high up the list.
1. 365 Days After

**365 Days After**

 **Edited by: Friends**

* * *

*BEEP BEEP BEEP*

Light shone through his bedroom window. He hated mornings.

*BEEP BEEP BEEP*

The alarm clock blared in the quiet room, almost deafening him.

*BEEP BEEP BEEP*

He reached over with his right arm to silence the noise. He only moved it a few inches before he felt a sharp pain in his elbow.

"Shit."

 _"Did you forget already? It hasn't even been that long."_

He shifts his weight, freeing his left arm from under his body. *BEEP BEEP BE-* He slams it down on the alarm clock. As he sits up, he can feel the cold starting to seep through to his bones.

"Why does it always have to be so fucking cold?"

 _"Because it's Tundra Town, that's why."_

"It was a rhetorical question."

He walks over to the mirror and stops. He inspects his reflection, checking for any damages he may have missed. Four and a half foot tall fox with the left half of his body covered with milky white fur and the right covered with thick, black fur (which had earned him the name "Half-n'-half", back when he had had friends). The two halves were split neatly middle. His back was landscaped in scars and stitches, almost as if he were pieced together with the flesh of other mammals. Everything seemed to be in order. After completing his inspection, he walks over to his dresser and pulls out a pair of grey socks, navy blue cargo pants, and a black t-shirt.

 _"Aren't you tired of wearing the same thing over and over again?"_

"Aren't you tired of saying the say things over and over again?"

He finishes getting changed and heads into the kitchen. Reaching into the fridge, he retrieves a glass of milk, hot pocket and some pierogis.

 _"You know, eating the same thing for an extended period of time is unhealthy."_

"So is getting shot, but that doesn't seem to have dissuaded you from getting us in trouble."

 _"Ouch. That hurt."_

He heats the food in the microwave, and once it's done, finishes it quickly. Glancing over at the clock, he sees that it's 8:00. Grabbing a dark blue sweater off the doorknob, he puts it on, zipping it up and flipping up it's hood. Time to go to work.

* * *

He checks the slip of paper again. BORIS AND CO. LIMO SERVICES is written in bold print.

"He's really moved up in the world. Do you think he'll remember us?"

 _"Don't worry. We have a very memorable appearance."_

Touché. As he reaches the address, he glances up and down the building. White-wash exterior with only a few small windows scattered here and there around 3 stories tall. Maybe Boris hadn't moved as far up as he thought. Sighing, he walks in the front door towards the reception desk and pulls his hood down. As he glances around the room, he sees a reception desk sitting in the middle of the room, with several monitors, presumably for security bear behind the desk looked bored out of his mind. To the left, there is a waiting area, consisting of several large chairs and tables, for the larger mammals, and on the right, an almost exact replica, only on a smaller scale. As Malcolm approaches the desk, the bear lifts his head and looks down at the smaller mammal.

"What do you want."

 _"Not very friendly."_

"I'm here to see Boris."

The bear tenses a little. "And you are?"

"Malcolm. My name is Malcolm."

"I'll call up for you."

The bear motions over to a few huge couches off to the side. Walking over, Malcolm jumps up onto one of the couches facing the elevator and scans the room. He sees two guards by the elevator and two by the stairs.

 _"Not heavily armed, so he's not expecting company."_

"Either he's confident nobody wants him dead, or he thinks people are too scared to move against him. Either way, it'll help us."

 _"How?"_ Malcolm could tell by the tone that IT already knew, and was just trying to test him.

"In case things go wrong. You never know what might happen."

 _"So you really did learn, huh?"_ IT says, with a hint of smugness in IT's voice.

"Shut it. Someone's coming over."

He sees a particularly large bear step out of the elevator and make his way to the couches, accompanied by four average sized bears. As he arrives, Malcolm stands up on the couch so the top of his head is just reaching his shoulders.

"Why are you here?"

"Well, nice to see you too Boris."

"You only show up if you need something. So, what do you want?"

"A job."

The bear looks at him for a second. "Bullshit. You've never needed a job before. Besides, I don't need someone of your… skill, working for me."

"Aw, come on. I can be your chauffeur or-"

"No. You're lucky I even decided to come down here. You're dangerous. I can't have you working for me."

"I see." Malcolm hops down from the sofa and starts moving towards the door.

"However."

He stops and turns.

"Yes?"

The bear glances around.

"I do have a few… problems, you could deal with."

 _"Nice."_

"Standard deal I assume? File ends up at my doorstep, if I get captured, I don't know who you are, yada yada yada?"

"Yes. You will be hearing from me."

As Malcolm leaves the building, pulling up sweaters hood, he grins. Things are about to get more interesting.

* * *

 _"You sure you want to do this?"_

He had made it back to the apartment, and there was already a file waiting for him.

"I don't know. We tried do other things but…" He trails off, know IT can complete the sentence.

 _"I know. It's the only thing we can do. I just wanted to make sure."_

"Think of it this way. He's not going to have us killing any really risky people. Probably just some drug dealers and what not that are on his turf."

 _"We'll see."_

After looking over the file (which was, as expected, a file detailing a small ring of drug dealers that had been imposing on his turf, composed of 3 snow leopards, a wolf and a cheetah), he inspected his weapons. A Beretta 92FS Inox with a flashlight and suppressor, Vector CRB with a red dot sight, fore grip and stock, and DTA Stealth Recon sniper rifle with a bipod, scope and suppressor. After cleaning and inspecting them, he gets to work on his plan.

* * *

 _"There he is."_

It was about 6:00 in the afternoon the next day and it was lightly snowing, and he was scoping out one of the snow leopard's usual spots. And there he was. Leaning against the inner wall of an alleyway. He was glancing around, very slowly. Malcolm was sitting in a café across the street, sipping a hot chocolate. The leopard had already sold to a few other mammals, including, but not limited to, a bear, wolf, leopard, and cheetah.

"You're sure it's him?" He says under his breath, to avoid attracting attention.

 _"Definitely. Time to move."_

He could feel his heartbeat increase just a little bit. He had almost missed this part. Almost. Finishing his hot chocolate, he got up and headed over to the leopard. Not walking directly at him. Walking down the street, crossing at the crosswalk and then heading in his direction. As he got close, he heard the leopard speak up:

"Psst. Buddy." He stops and feigns confusion.

"Do I know you?" The leopard takes the bait.

"No, but that doesn't matter. You're looking rather cold in just that sweater. Want a little something to warm you up?" He glances around. He's nervous. Gotta be careful.

"Sure."

"Good. Come with me." The leopard leads him into the alley and around a corner. It's dark, shaded from the sun. It reeked of trash (which was haphazardly scattered around) and drugs, the smell almost making him gag. Sometimes his sensitive nose was a curse as much as it was a blessing. His hand tightens on the grip of his pistol. Don't want to be caught unaware. The leopard stops about three feet from the corner and turns around. He opens his coat, to show the assortment of bags and bottles, filled with one illegal substance or another. Concerning. How did he get so much?

"Pick your poison." Malcolm raises an eyebrow.

"Not literally. *sigh* Just pick what you want." He pretends to consider for a moment, then points at a bag filled with a blue powder.

"Nice choice. That's a new one on the market."

"Really? What's it called?" The leopard stiffens. Uh-oh.

"Why do you want to know?" Think. Fast.

"I want to know what to ask for if I'm ordering from somebody else."

The leopard relaxes. Whew. "Alright. It's called 'Feral Blue'."

Malcolm's turn to tense. "What?"

"Ya. Feral Blue. Never seen its effects before, but I heard it's rather thrilling. Be careful when you use it though. You'll attack anyone near you if you use too much."

"I know."

 _"Don't."_

"You know? What, you used that stuff before?"

"You could say that."

"Alright let me just-"

As soon as the leopard took his eyes off him, he moved. Drew his pistol and hit the leopard hard in the top of his head with the butt of the gun. *Crack* The leopard drops to the ground, blood already starting to trickle from his forehead.

 _"We have to move quickly."_

"I agree."

He takes off the leopard's jacket and wraps it around the mammal's head. Don't want him bleeding all over the place. He walks back to the street and glances around. Not many people on the street, due to the snow, but anyone in the café might see him.

 _"We could bring the van around and load him in there."_

"And do what? Dump his body in a lake?"

 _"Any other ideas?"_

"Do we still have that barrel of sulfuric acid?"

 _"Ya, I think it's in the garage. Oh god. I hate that stuff. It smells so... disgusting."_

After bringing the van around (with a blacked out license plate of course) he opens the side door and loads the snow leopard in the back.

 _"You sure he's not going to wake up?"_

Stepping in the van with the leopard, he closes the door behind him, draws his claws, slits the leopards throat, and wraps the leopard in thick black carpet to stop the blood from staining the van.

"There. He should bleed out before we get there."

He then climbs into the front seat and starts the van.

* * *

After half an hour of driving (mostly 'cause he had to take side roads to avoid traffic jams caused by the chase involving 2 rabbits, a fox, and the entire ZPD that had ensued a few days before) he arrived at his storage garage, located just outside of the city, away from prying eyes. He backed up the van to the garage door, turned off the van and opened the garage. It was dimly lit, only illuminated by the now setting sun. There were several shelves and workbenches scattered throughout the interior. They were covered with a plethora of things, including (but not limited to), gun powder, gun parts, frag grenades, incendiary grenades, and his own custom white phosphorus grenades. He shivered at the sight of them. He had seen and felt their effects first hand, and was in no rush to use them.

"Now, let's see… Ah. Here it is."

Nestled in between two shelves was a barrel about his height, half filled with the foul smelling liquid. Opening the lid, he retches at the sudden strong scent. When was the last time that thing was cleaned? After regaining his posture, he unloads the carpet (with the leopard inside) and closes the garage door. Don't want anyone to see what happens next. Unwrapping the carpet, he picks up the leopard and eyeballs the leopards size.

 _"He's too big to fit in one piece."_

"Guess he won't go in one piece then." There was a bit of remorse in his voice.

He walks over to one of the shelves and takes down a bone saw. Dusting it off, he carefully checks the sharpness. This should work.

 _"I don't want to be here for this part."_

"I know. I'll wake you when it's over."

 _"Thanks."_

He pulls a pair blue headphones out of his sweater pocket and puts them over his ears. Taking a few seconds to search, he finds the playlist he's looking for, and turns it up almost to max volume. Truth be told, he never liked this part either, but someone has to do it. With that, he begins sawing away at the leopard's limbs. Starting with the legs, then the arms, and then the head. He kept all the pieces on the carpet, as it absorbed and held the blood fairly well. After a while, he finally managed to get the limbs separated. Taking them one by one and dumping them into the barrel, each making a sizzling noise as they made contact with the acid. Now, the torso. This was always the difficult part. He picked up the torso (which was about as big and weighed about the same as him) and slowly lowered it into the barrel. The sizzling was much louder now; he could just barely hear it over his music. Once there was about an inch left of the leopard above the surface of the acid, he let go of the torso. Thankfully, it didn't splash, and he quickly slammed the lid on the barrel. The smell had been burning his nose and he wanted out as quickly as possible. Exiting the garage and locking it behind him, he released a breath he had been holding and took a moment to clear that foul smell out of his nose. Unlocking his van, he climbed in, pulled out his phone, turned off the music and called Boris's receptionist.

A gruff, slightly annoyed bear answers.

"Yes?"

"I want to speak to Boris."

"He's out at the moment. Can I take a message?"

"Yes. One down, four to go." Malcolm hangs up and puts the phone in his pocket.

"Hey, wake up."

 _"Mmm? Oh."_

"It's done. We'll get the next one tomorrow."

* * *

 **Crazy: Hey everybody! This is my first time writing a story, so I hope you all like it! This takes place in the Zootopia Universe, set in the Broken Mask sub-universe created by Kulkum. Go check him out on DeviantArt, the guy is awesome! I have no idea if I'm going to continue this or not, so any feed back would be great!**


	2. 366 Days After

366 Days After

"Is that him?"

" _Yes. Exactly where the file said he would be."_

This time, they had been hunting the wolf. The wolf was wearing a grey hoodie with black dress pants. Why was he so well dressed? He seemed to be more cautious than the leopard. Instead of standing in the open, he was about four feet from the entrance to an alleyway. The street they were on was a mostly abandoned one, with only the occasional car going by. Malcolm was sitting in his car, a dark blue Chevrolet Volt with blacked out windows. He had only been watching the wolf for a few minutes, and was starting to feel anxious. No, _IT_ was starting to feel anxious.

" _Something's wrong."_

"What do you mean?"

" _He hasn't approached anyone. The file said he was a dealer, but he isn't acting like it."_

"So he's cautious. Doesn't surprise me, since his buddy didn't return yesterday."

" _Still, I think we should go."_

"It'll be fine."

As Malcolm climbed out of the car, the wolf in the alley glanced in his directions, and watched him out of the corner of his eye. He's smarter than the leopard. This should be more… interesting. He saunters over to the alleyway at a leisurely place, which is slower than his usual walking pace. Don't want to startle him. He enters the alleyway and moves towards the wolf. This place smells just as bad as the other alley. Maybe worse. Certainly didn't look any better. As he makes his way towards the wolf, he notices that there are a few inlets on either side of the alley.

" _Do you hear that? He's not the only one here. We should go."_

Indeed, he could hear the heartbeat of several mammals (roughly 6) besides the wolf in the alley. They weren't alone. Maybe this was a bad idea. Oh well. Too late to turn back now.

"Why hello there! Beautiful weather we're having!" Malcolm said. It really wasn't. There was at least a foot of snow on the ground from the previous day's fall.

"What do you want?" The wolf sounded very annoyed.

"Nothing, just a friendly chat!"

"Uh-huh. I'm sure that's what you told Gerry."

The wolf motioned with his hand, and several mammals stepped out of the shadows and inlets in the alley. Two cheetahs and a hyena on his right, a bear, a coyote and a jaguar on his left. Must be hired muscle. They were armed with usual street weapons. Baseball bats, boards, and a lead pipe. How cliche.

"I don't know what your talking about." Feign innocence. Need to come up with a plan.

"Bullshit. You're the last one who saw him, and he didn't report in yesterday." Report in?

"Alright, you caught me. What now? Gonna make an example of me or something?" Malcolm chuckled.

"Something like that. Kill him."

The hyena swung his bad, aiming for his head. All Malcolm had to do was raise his arm to block, and the wooden bat splintered into pieces at the impact. The hyena looked confused, but only for a second, as Malcolm had lashed out with his claws and managed to catch the hyena in the throat, severing his windpipe. The hyena collapsed to the ground, gasping for air, choking on his own blood.

"Anyone else?" He smirked, noticing that they all hesitated.

The bear came next, wielding a lead pipe about five feet long. He swung the pipe straight down, and Malcolm just sidestepped it. Bracing himself, he jumped at the bear, jaw open. The bear didn't have time to react before Malcolm had dug his claws in his eyes and chomped down on his throat. The blood made contact with his tongue, and it tasted almost sweet. No. Control yourself. You're better than this. He pushed himself off the bear landing on his feet and glanced around. The bear simply fell to the ground dead, Malcolm figuring his claws had gone deeper than intended and hit his brain. Everything except for the other mammals in the alley had gone grey. He knew what this meant, and so did everyone else, for different reason. The mammals all glanced nervously at each other, except for the wolf. He held eye contact with Malcolm. Something else was going on.

"What are you idiots waiting for? Kill him!" He sounds pissed.

"But boss," the jaguar said, "he's gone savage!"

"RUN FOR IT!" The coyote screamed, which startled the rest of the hired muscle into running.

Malcolm turned his attention back to the wolf, and was taken by surprise when the wolf was smiling at him.

"So it really is you, huh?" Something's wrong. Something's VERY wrong.

"What's it to you?" Malcolm growled. The tangy taste of blood still in his mouth, and some of it was starting to drip from his mouth.

"I was told to find you, that you were an asset. I must admit though, you are very difficult to find. I was half certain that this little 'drug ring' ruse wouldn't work." Oh no...

"And you are?" He was starting to get impatient.

"Agent Wolfferson. I work with the-"

"I know who you work for. And you can tell them to fuck off." They knew where he was. Not good. Time to leave. He had only taken a few steps when the agent spoke.

"Well, in that case…"

Malcolm heard the cocking of a gun behind, and spun around just in time to see muzzle flash as the wolf fired at him. The bullet hit him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Malcolm dropped to his knees, clutching were the bullet had hit. Then he felt it. Something he had tried to get rid of woke up. And it was not happy.

" **You fucked up."** The agent looked confused, and then realized what was happening. Malcolm heard his heart rate increase and saw the wolf turn to leave.

" _Calm down. You don't need to-"_

" **SHUT UP! I'm tired of being chained away! Now it's my turn!"**

And just like that, what was once Malcolm was something else. The agent had only made it two feet before the **THING** pounced him, and tore him to pieces. The sound of ripping flesh and gurgled screams of the agent both excited and horrified him. This is what he had been made for, but that doesn't mean he liked it. All he saw was a flurry of claws and teeth, chomping into the wolf, tasting his flesh and blood, and **IT** being spurred on by the taste. He could feel _IT_ recoiling somewhere in the back of his mind, trying to get away from the scene that played out in front of them. After **IT** was done, there was nothing but pieces of cloth, flesh and bone scattered throughout the alley. **IT** was covered head to toe in blood.

" _You need to calm down. He's gone, everything's fine. You can go back to sleep."_

" **NO! No, it's my turn, it's my-"**

" _What would she think of us now?"_ The question had been asked to no one in particular, and had been asked with a tone of sadness.

He felt **IT** flinch at her mention, and soon was back in control. Time to go.

"Hey... Thanks."

" _I think I'm going to puke."_

"Not here. Wait until we get back."

" _I'll try my best."_

Now, what am I going to change into? He glanced around, and saw the corpse of the now dead hyena. That seems like a close enough fit. Glancing around to see if anyone else was still there, he makes his way over to the hyena and quickly changes his clothes, which was a brown hoodie, black t-shirt and loose jeans. He wrapped his clothes in the hoodie, and wiped the blood on his face onto the bear's white winter jacket. He walks over the his car, throwing his clothes bundle into the trunk and climbs into the driver's seat.

He had stopped at his apartment quickly to pick up his things. He grabbed some canned food, spare clothes and weapons (along with spare ammo) and stuffed them into a hockey bag. He went into to the bathroom and took his shirt off, inspecting the wound in his stomach. He drew his claws, preparing himself for what came next.

" _We should go to a hospital."_

"I can just imagine that. 'Oh, hey doctor? Ya, my fur is stained with the blood of three other mammals, but could you ignore that and stitch up this hole in my stomach?'." He growled out the last sentence.

" _Sorry."_

This next part would not be fun. He reached into the hole in his stomach with his thumb and pointer finger. The pain was immediate and he growled loudly, but continued on. Thankfully, the bullet had just barely entered his skin, so it would have been visible without the blood in the way. He grabbed it and ripped it out, dropping the bullet into the sink, along with a small stream of blood. He quickly covered the wound in gauze, and looked at himself in the mirror. His white fur had been stained red, while the black fur just looked wet. The full weight of what had happened suddenly hit him like a wall of bricks. And then he puked. When he puked, it was greenish red, probably from the bits of flesh that **IT** had swallowed during **ITS** rampage. The thought made him puke again, this time more violently than before. He dug his claws into the sink, cracking the porcelain and causing some of the fluid (a mix of vomit and blood with bits of partially-dissolved flesh floating inside) begin to drip out. He needed a shower. He made it quick, as he had no idea how long until more agents showed up at his apartment now that they knew he was in Tundra Town. Once the blood had (mostly) been cleaned off his fur and he put on some deodorant to try and hide the smell, he grabbed his hockey bag and put it in the trunk, climbed into the driver's seat and started driving.

" _Where are we going?"_

"We need to get out of Zootopia. They'll be looking for us by now."

" _You didn't answer my question."_

He remained quiet. He knew where they were going, and knew _IT_ would figure out soon enough. It was only several hours away. He knew they were just going to find him again, but he wanted the next encounter to be on HIS terms. He was going the closest place to home he had. The place he had spent most of his life. The place where all of this started. He was going to what **IT** called home, and what he and _IT_ called hell. This was going to suck.


	3. Before

Cold. "Home". Or the closest thing to it. The cell was a smooth metal room, with no bed. They didn't even give him clothes. After a while, his fur had been stained red, as they didn't give him anything to bathe with. Bright. Too bright. X-10 had to keep his eyes closed to avoid going blind. But then the light would shut off, leaving everything in a pitch blackness, where, if not for his enhanced vision, he wouldn't be able to see anything. And the smell would return. The smell that woke **IT** from it's slumber. The "trigger", as the scientists called it. After a few attempted escapes, they finally learned how to make sure it really was **IT** they were talking to. A test.

"Kill them," they would say. They would drop an animal into the room from a hatch in the ceiling. They would usually be bruised and beaten, unable to defend themselves. **IT** would obey. He wouldn't. He would fight **IT**. But **IT** always won.

Then the training would begin. The wall would drop away, leading to a corridor. This led to a larger room (similar to his cell, but roughly one hundred meters in length and width), with corridors leading to cells the same as his. Here, he would fight others like him. Other experiments. Genetic tests. Trying to form the perfect killer. They would enhance them, then pit them against each other as "training", with roughly 20 (including himself) mammals in there at a time. Truthfully, they were making him clean up there failed test subjects, as they never fed him. After **IT** ate their fill, they would then lure him into a smaller room (ten meters by ten meters) where they would turn on the blinding lights. The only things that stopped **IT** and allowed him to resume control. There, they would train him with tools. Weapons, grenades, fire, you name it. They never told him how to do the tasks that they assigned him, so he had to figure it out himself. After a more explosive failure, he had awoken strapped to a medical bed, full spread eagle, facing the ground. Then a voice spoke.

"You almost died. Almost. But worse than that, you almost completely ruined that beautiful fur of yours." The voice sounded the same as if he were talking about a suit that had been stained, and X-10 could hear the voice circling him as it spoke, "But, due to this… incident, we have decided to essentially fire-proof your fur, and make a few other adjustments to you. Stronger bones, denser muscle, better hearing, etc., while keeping your natural fur pattern. You will be awake for the procedure. It will hurt." The voice stopped just in front of him. "And you will learn from your mistakes."

Pain. All he felt was pain. The procedure had lasted for what felt like eternity. They had completely stripped him, down to the muscle and bone, all while keeping him awake. Then, they began the cutting. The removing. The replacing. The procedure had lasted a week, non-stop. They kept pumping him with fluids and adrenaline to keep him alive and awake. All the while, he screamed. Or would have, if they hadn't paralyzed himo he couldn't move or speak. He could only feel. Once the procedure had been completed, they put his skin back on him, and the voice returned, now identified as one of the scientists, named Doctor Jacob Calloway.

"Now, that was fun wasn't it? You have been reborn, improved, and I'm quite proud of my work. However, there was one... complication." He paused, waiting for X-10 to cease struggling and flailing in attempts to free himself. "Your beautiful fur wasn't quite big enough to cover your improved form. As such, we took skin grafts from some of your 'playmates' and grafted it onto your back. Now, your skin should fit you just fine. Ah, I just remembered. I also made your fur stain resistant. I find it such a shame that your gorgeous fur pattern was always stained by the entrails of others, " he said, in a slightly disappointed tone, "Anyway, we will have to wait a while for the new enhancements to be accepted into your system. Until then, your daily schedule will resume."

Then a slight hissing sound came from seemingly everywhere, until slowly X-10 drifted back to sleep.

When he awoke, the first thing his brain registered was pain. Pain, coming from seemingly everywhere. He curled himself in a ball, falling in and out of consciousness for an unknown period of time. When the pain finally subsided, he noticed he was back in his usual cell, and that his body had changed. He felt heavier, and he could now hear talking. Not his, or **IT** s, but something else. Something faint. He had spent several minutes whirling around, looking for the source of the voices. Then, as usual, the lights turned off, and the smell returned. But this time, it was different. When he got to the large room, the fighting continued as usual (albeit easier, as he could now hear the heartbeats of every mammal in the room, along with being stronger, faster and more durable), but the voices got slightly louder, and there were more of them. Until only one other mammal remained. Him, and a vixen. The fox had done nothing spectacular, defending herself from other mammals that attacked her, but she did something that none of the others had done. Something that he didn't know the others were capable of. She spoke.

"So this is what they've been doing down here," she croaked in a raspy voice, "What did they do to you?"

This caused X-10 to hesitate. They had never talked before.

Then, before he knew what was happening, a new voice spoke. This time, from inside. " _Please, don't. I'm sick of the killing. You're sick of the killing. It's time we left."_

This voice was new. The vixen continued to stand there, fear and curiosity in her eyes watching X-10 as he stood there, paw raised, claws ready for the kill. But it never happened. Instead, he spoke.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Carolyn."

"Not you. I'm talking to the quiet one."

" _I'm you."_

" **Oh great. As if sharing a body with one person wasn't enough."**

"Shut up." He sighed, lowering his raised paw and rubbing his paw along his eyebrows. "You're telling me that there's three of us now?"

"Who are you talking to?" He remembered the vixen (named Carolyn, apparently) was still standing there, but ignored her while he tried to make sense of the situation.

However, the next question caused him to flinch, as he hadn't anticipated it.

"What's your name?"

Silence.

"I… don't have a name."

Suddenly, a loud voice cracked through the loud speakers that he hadn't noticed before.

"X-10!" Great. Calloway was back. And he sounded pissed. "Don't just stand there. Do what you were made for and kill her!"

"No."

Silence again.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN NO!?"

"I mean no. I'm done with this. I want to leave."

Silence. Followed by laughter. Very loud, very obnoxious laughter."HAHAHA! You think you can leave?! You were MADE here. We created you in a TUBE with the DNA from myself and the head surgeon! Even if you left, you'd have nowhere to go!"

Calloway continued laughing, and it was starting to get annoying.

"I want to leave."

" _Me too."_

" **Agreed."**

" _Why do_ _ **you**_ _want to leave?"_

" **The prey here is too easy. I want a challenge."**

"Of course. I probably could have guessed that if-"

"How are we supposed to leave?" Again startled by the fox, X-10 flinched, which only made the vixen jump in return, however she tripped of the corpse of a ferret that X-10 had sliced in half with his claws earlier. This caused X-10 to chuckle, which only made the vixen glare at him as she picked herself back up.

"How could you laugh? These were once normal mammals! I fail to see how any of this is funny."

X-10, once again ignoring her, walked over to a far wall and pressed his ear against it, trying to pinpoint the sound of the talking he had heard earlier and continued to hear, now sounding more frantic.

"What are yo-"

"Shhhh."

"What do you mean 'shh'?"

"Shhh."

And with that, he punched the wall. Or what looked like a wall, but was actually a one-way mirror, sending glass shards flying all over the place.

He was instantly blinded by the sudden light in the room, and shielded his eyes, though thankful that this light wasn't as bright as the lights in his cell. Fairly quickly, however, all panic broke loose. Scientists (who only consisted of predators, weirdly enough) had started screaming, running for the many doors that lined the room, all hitting alarm buttons on the way out. As his eyes adjusted to the light, he saw that it was a white room, with nothing on the walls, and monitors, chairs, and computers lining the walls. The monitors had several displays on them, most of which he could make no sense of. The room was maybe three feet taller than he was.

"A monitoring room. Interesting."

The vixen had climbed into the room after him, gracefully hoping over the ledge and managed to not land on any of the glass shards. X-10, however, didn't care. He just wanted out. He began walking towards the closest door, when Carolyn spoke up yet again.

"Where are you going?" She sounded more curious than confused.

"Don't know, don't care. Just want out."

" _But we don't know where out is. We should stick with her, she seems to what she's doing."_

" **I don't trust her."**

" _Neither do I. But we don't have any other plan."_

 _IT_ was right, as Carolyn had moved over to one of the monitors and started typing into the keyboard, and the display changed. Must be security cameras.

" **I don't trust her."**

" _Me neither."_

"Do you have any other ideas?"

" _No."_

"Who do you keep talking to?" She sounded annoyed now.

X-10s ear twitched towards the fourth door from their improvised entryway, on the right side of the room. Footsteps. Heavy footsteps. Security probably.

"We have company."

A look of fear flashed across Carolyns face. "From where?"

X-10 pointed at the door, just as it burst open, and several heavily armed wolfs entered the room. They spread across half the room, sticking close to the walls. They pointed their weapons (SMGs and shotguns) towards the two, and one of them spoke.

"Both of you, return to your cells! You have until the count of ten!" This one seemed to be in charge, and was situated farthest away from the two.

"Ten!"

X-10 began scanning the room, looking for a weapon.

"Nine!"

He noticed Carolyn's muscles slowing coiling, preparing to jump to cover.

"Eight!"

He noticed an electrical box on the wall, a few feet from where he was standing.

"Seven!"

He'd have to be quick, but he could probably make it.

"Six!"

He slowly crouched, and prepared to make the leap.

"Five!"

"Carolyn. Hide under the desk."

"Four!"

"But-"

"Do it."

"Three!"

She complied, and slowly began moving under the desk.

"Two!"

He leaped towards the electrical box. As soon as he did, the wolves opened fire, and he was met with a wall of lead. Thankfully, the momentum from his jump was enough to send him flying into the electrical box, smashing it and shutting off the lights.

" **Time to go to work."**

Before the security team could even switch their flashlights on, **IT** began slicing through them. The only thing the wolves could do was scream and fire blind. The smell of blood and gunpowder soon filled the room. Then, only the sound of dripping blood remained. Carolyn climbed out from under the desk, her night vision beging to take affect. The sight was horrid. Pieces of wolves, weapons and armour, along with upturned desks and monitors lay scattered about the room, with X-10 standing in the middle of it all. He was breathing heavily, and his ears twitched around, looking for any more movement. He was covered head to hind paws in blood, and it was dripping from his open mouth. He never liked the taste, but he had learned to deal with it.

"Oh my god," she whispered.

God? Who's god? He'd have to ask her later. "Did you manage to find out where to go?"

"Uh… ya. Ya. Head through that door." She pointed at one of the ones at the far end of the room. "Then continue straight until you reach an elevator that will head to the surface."

"Let's get going then."

The pair quickly made it to the elevator, only running into a few unfortunate security guards on the way. X-10 sliced through them without even stopping. Once they made it inside the elevator and had hit the button labeled 'Ground Level', did Carolyn finally take the time to fully inspect the living weapon next to her. He was tall, taller than any normal fix, and he was covered with burns and scars, with mismatched fur all over his upper back. The next thing she noticed was the bullet wounds. Apparently the wolves hadn't been as inaccurate as she first thought.

"You're bleeding."

X-10 looked down at his chest, noticing the bullet wounds for seemingly the first time. "Huh. So I am."

What he did next both startled and concerned her. Using his claws, he reached into each wound and extracted each bullet and pellet, dropping the the ground with a small _ping_ , growling a little every time he pulled one out. What caught her attention the most though, was how the wounds only seemed to be barely through his skin, when the bullets would normally have gone almost completely through any other mammal.

"What next?"

"Huh?" She was still quite shocked at how easily he had pulled the bullets from his flesh.

"You clearly aren't from here. So, where to next?"

"Oh. Uh, once we reach the surface, there should be an extraction team waiting for us."

"Really? Who? The FBI? ZIA? GRU? FSB? SVR?"

"ZIA."

"Huh. I assume I'll be debriefed once we get out of here?" He sounded bored and unbothered by any of this information.

"Yes. You will be debriefed by myself and another agent who organized this operation."

"Got it."

" _We shouldn't go with her."_

" **Why not?"**

" _Why not? The last thing we need is to go from being a test subject for once agency to a pawn for another."_

" **Good point."**

"No."

Carolyn turned to look at him, ready to say something, then realized he wasn't looking at her and assumed he was talking to himself.

" _What?"_

" **Ya, I'm with the new guy. What?"**

"We'll see what happens. We don't have anywhere else to go."

" _This is a terrible idea."_

"Well too bad. I'm in control, so I make the decisions."

" _Fine."_

" **Asshole."**


	4. The Meeting

As the elevator doors opened, he was blinded by both the sudden brightness, and the sudden noises. He closed his eyes tightly and clamped his hands down over his ears, trying to silence the noise. It was too loud. Was was it so loud?

"Are you okay?" Carolyn seemed curious, and only slightly concerned. "What's wrong?"

"It's too loud. And bright. Why is it so bright?"

"What do you mean? That's just the sun."

"The what?"

"You…" Now she seemed slightly more concerned. "You don't know what the sun is?"

He could hear footsteps approaching, followed by someone sounding like they're about to puke.

"*cough cough* Can we get a medic over here?" Another voice. Male. Rabbit. "What the hell happened down there?"

"You don't want to know." Carolyn seemed to know him. Could he be another ZIA agent?

X-10 slowly opened his eyes, and blinked a few times, while he adjusted to the light. However, he kept his hands firmly planted over his ears, as the sounds were still painfully loud, just less so now. He saw before him a dense forest, with a single dirt trail leading away in front of him, with a few unmarked black SUVs. There were a dozen other mammals in sight, and right in front of him and Carolyn stood the rabbit, who wasn't even shoulder height with him (excluding his ears). He was covered in black stripes, and, unlike the other mammals, who wore Spec Ops looking gear, he wore a suit and tie. His hands were neatly folded behind his back, but looked visibly shaken by the sight before him.

" _Ok, if you're so intent on working with these people, you're going to want to be nice to them-"_

"Who the hell are you?" X-10 spat out, staring down the rabbit.

" _\- or you could do that."_

"Jack." Said the rabbit, curiously glancing from the blood soaked fox to Carolyn. "Jack Savage. I organized this operation."

The fox could hear **IT** cackling at the statement.

" **HE organized this?! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Why would the ZIA let a cutsy wootsy little rabbit join them? This is too funny! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!"**

He heard _IT_ sigh, and begin to say something. He decided to interrupt before they started arguing.

"Uh-huh. So, when do we get to leave?"

"Now if you'd like."

Jack then lead them to a black SUV with tinted windows. He was given a towel by a medic, and had wiped off the not yet dry blood. Jack climbed into the driver's seat, and Carolyn climbed into the passenger's seat, while X-10 sat in the backseat. As they started off down a dirt road, he could see Carolyn staring at him though the rear-view mirror. No, not staring. Watching him. She looked… scared.

" _Can you blame her? She watched us butcher mammals with nothing but our claws and teeth."_

About half-an-hour into the drive Jack spoke.

"Is something wrong?" Jack was referring to the fact that X-10 still had his paws over his ears.

"It's too loud."

"O… k…" Jack brushed off the statement. "I don't believe I got your name."

"I don't have a name."

Jack paused for a moment, and looked a bit confused by the response. "What do you mean?"

Carolyn spoke now. "I don't think he was ever told he had a name, but they referred to him as X-10."

"That's not a name. That's a number. I ask again. Do you have a name?"

"No. And I'm not X-10. **IT** is." This statement confused both Carolyn and Jack.

"Who?" Jack said, a look of confusion on his face.

" **IT**. **IT** listened to them, did what they said. I didn't."

Jack looked concerned now. "You mean there's another one?"

"No, he was the only other one besides myself in there. Wait, are you… are you talking about… whoever it was that you were talking to?" Carolyn was fully turned around in her seat now, staring at him.

"Yes. **IT** has always enjoyed the… the killing. But I didn't. I was tired of it. But **IT** was stronger than me. At least, **IT** was, until _IT_ showed up." Upon the mentioning of _IT_ , both Jack and Carolyn seemed confused.

"Wait, are there… two of them?"

"Yes. **IT's** loud and aggressive. A monster. However, _IT_ \- the other one - is quiet, and very... afraid."

"Afraid of what?"

" _I don't like this. You're telling them everything about us. You shouldn't trust them."_

" **I agree with him. You're too trusting."**

"Afraid of everything. Ever since he started talking, there's been this urge to run… to… to run and hide, away from everyone and everything."

"Don't worry. We'll be going somewhere where you'll be safe."

" _Safe for us, or safe from us?"_

" **Probably both."**

The rest of the ride had continued in silence. Carolyn had continued to watch X-10, less from fear now, more from intrigue. He had simply stared out the window the entire drive, watching as the land went from dense forest, to rolling plains, to farmland, then to city. Zootopia, Jack had called it. Mammals living together in harmony. Kind of. It looked all happy, but X-10 figured it wasn't. One of the few things he was actually told instead of taught was to never trust anything, that nothing was as it seemed and everything's always worse than it appears. X-10's ears had finally adjusted to the the sounds, and had tentatively taken his paws off his ears. They arrived at a small building on the outskirts of (what was apparently called) the Rainforest District. It was only accessible from a hidden dirt road, and was located in one of the corners of the simulated environment. When they arrived, they parked in an underground garage right next to the building. He was told to wait in the SUV, while Jack and Carolyn left. They came back a few minutes later with clothes for X-10.

"What are we going to call you?" Carolyn had asked while he was putting on the clothes he was given (tan cargo shorts with a black t-shirt).

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we can't just keep calling you X-10. As you said yourself, that isn't your name, and we need something to call."

"Hmmm." Jack put his hand on his chin, contemplating that question.

"How about Steve?"

"We can't call him Steve."

"Why not?"

"The name sounds too boring. I like Mark."

"No, he doesn't look like a Mark."

Jack and Carolyn spent the next ten minutes discussing potential names for X-10. Eventually, Jack seemed to have an idea.

"How about we let him name himself." Carolyn stared at the buck for a second, seemingly shocked by his proposal.

"We can't let him name himself!"

"Why not? Here we are, arguing over what his name should be like he's a pet. He's a mammal, and should be given the option to name himself."

Sighing, Carolyn gave in to Jack's request. "Fine. So," turning to X-10. "what would you like to be called?"

"I don't know."

"See, Jack, even _he_ doesn't know what he wants to be called!"

"Hmmm."

Jack pulled a small, rectangular shaped device out of his pocket and tapped a few times on it's screen. After a few moments, the buck tossed it to X-10.

"There. It is currently opened to a database of potential names from all over the world. Take your time, and pick one you like."

"Jack, this is going to take forever."

"How about you go inside a give a report. I'll make sure he gets to his room once he's done picking a name."

After Carolyn left, X-10 spent the next hour and a half looking at the names on the screen. Jack was becoming bored, but tried his best not to show. That is, until X-10 revealed he had only been looking at the 10 names that were already on-screen, as he had no idea how to operate the device he had been given. Jack then gave him a quick tutorial on how to use the device (called a 'smart-phone') and continued looking at name. It was then that Carolyn returned, having been worried by how long it was taking them. Jack assured her that everything was fine, and she left again, telling Jack that 'boss was getting impatient'. Jack simply smirked, and Carolyn again left. After another two-and-a-half hours, X-10 finally decided on a name.

"Edgar."

Jack (who had fallen asleep leaning on the window) lazily blinked eyes and stretched.

"Wha?" he yawned, having been woken from his slumber.

"I would like to be called Edgar."

Edgar had debated also getting names for **IT** and _IT_ but they had refused. **IT** because he thought it was pointless, and _IT_ because he wanted to pick a name for himself, and didn't like any of the ones on the list. They had asked him why he wanted to be called Edgar of all names, and he simply responded with 'I just like it.'

"Well then, Edgar, I should probably bring you to my boss before he gets too impatient. After that, I will show you to your room and we'll go from there."

"Alright. Lead the way."

As they stepped out of the vehicle, Edgar immediately noticed the cameras in all corners of the empty (except for a few other cars, including the one the had arrived in) parking garage. They had parked closest to several elevators. One for large mammals, another for medium sized mammals and the last one for smaller mammals. They entered the middle elevator, and as they stepped into the elevator, Jack hit the button labeled with a three. After a few seconds, the doors closed. The levator let out a groaning noise, and the doors opened again, the 'Maximum Weight Reached' sign flashing on the top of the control panel.

"That's weird. Must be broken."

They then tried the largest elevator, Jack again hitting the three button. This time, when the doors closed, the elevator actually started moving.

"When we get to my boss, let me do all the talking. He's very sensitive -and a little paranoid- so you have to be careful what you say around him."

"Got it."

" **Sensitive is he? We could have fun with this."**

" _Don't even think about it. The last thing we want to do is piss off the leader of the ZIA when we're in the middle of one of it's facilities."_

" **Come on, can't we have a little fun?"**

" _No."_

"I've been wondering where you guys were. You were quiet for so long, I thought you two were dead."

"What?" Jack looked very confused by the comment.

"Sorry, not you." Pressing his index finger to the side of his head Edgar said "I'm talking to them."

"Oh. Right. Maybe we should get you to a doctor too."

"Why?"

Jack paused, looking up at the significantly taller fox.

"Why? Because it's not normal for mammals to have voices in their head."

"Really?"

Now Jack was looking agitated. "Yes, _really_. Now we have to hurry before-"

"JACK! IS THAT YOU I HEAR? YOU'RE LATE! REALLY FUCKING LATE!" The shouting came from outside the elevator.

"Aw shit. Alright remember. I do all the talking. Got it?" The fox nodded. "Good. Let's go."

They exited the elevator on the left, where the shout had originated from. The hallway was bland, with white walls and plain white carpet. There were doors lining the hall on either side, with the door on the end being open, and a not-too-happy looking badger standing in the door, along with Carolyn standing just outside the door. She looked worried, for herself or them, Edgar couldn't tell. Once the two saw them exit the elevator and turn their way, they both headed inside the room, with Carolyn beckoning the others to hurry. Jack and Edgar quickly made their way the the end of the hall, Edgar noticing Jack looked nervous. Both his tail and nose were twitching, if only slightly. Once they made it to the end of the hall, they entered the room. It appeared to be an office, with a desk in the middle of the room, covered in neatly stacked papers, a strange metal strip with strange markings on it, and two chairs in front of it. The badger was currently seated in a swivel chair, facing towards the group. There was a couch along the right wall, with a small knee-height table in front of it. The left wall featured several paintings of what looked like the badgers family, along with several display cases with medals and a few decorative firearms. The badger motioned them to sit, which Jack and Carolyn did. Edgar, however, remained standing just inside the doorway. Dominick took a deep breath, before looking at Edgar.

"My name is Dominick Brach. Why don't you take a seat?"

"I prefer to stand."

The badger smiled slightly and nodded his head. He turned to face Jack, and anger immediately flashed onto his face.

"What the hell took you so long?! I told you to come see me as soon as you got back but it took you four goddamn hours to get here after you arrived! What the hell were you doing?!"

Jack flinched when the badger started yelling, but other than that, didn't show any other signs of fear or nervousness.

"Sir, we… hit a snag upon returning."

"Oh? And what might that have been?" The badger was glaring holes into the rabbit, who remained perfectly composed.

"He," motioning to Edgar, "didn't have a name."

The badger stared blankly at the buck for a few seconds, before finally process what he had said.

"What?! How could he not have had a name!?"

"Because he was never given one." Carolyn spoke up now, and as the badger directed his attention to the pitch black vixen, his expression immediately became softer and more calm.

"What do you mean?" Dominick sounded completely neutral now, almost as if he had not just been screaming at Jack. "The reports said they were training him to be their ultimate assassin."

"No. They were training him to be a weapon, not an assassin."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, first off, he was given a number instead of a name. They called him X-10. Secondly, he lacks basic knowledge, such as, what the sun is."

"He doesn't know what the sun is?" The badger was shocked by the revelation, and looked back and forth from the vixen to the tod.

"It would appear that he was denied basic education, and was instead trained in the art of killing his entire life."

"Interesting." Turning to Edgar now, who had walked over to the display cases and was studying the contents.

"How old are you?"

Edgar cocked his head at the question. "Huh?"

"How many years have you been alive."

"How many what?"

Edgar was starting to feel a little panicked now. What is he asking me? What if these questions are really important? Seeing the panicked expression on the fox's face, Jack quickly spoke up.

"It's okay, Edgar. It's alright. I'm sure we'll be able to figure this out later."

The badger had turned back to Carolyn and they began talking while Jack calmed Edgar down.

"You're right. If he's going to work for us, we're going to have to make sure he has at least a basic understanding of things. I'll assign you two to that, seeing as he seems to trust you."

"What?"

Carolyn seemed almost horrified at the statement, which Edgar was a little upset by. Jack, on the other hand, seemed quite pleased by the new assignment.

"Thank you sir. We will begin immediately."

"Sir, you can't possibly-"

"Jack, you and- oh, how rude of me. I never got your name."

"I'm Edgar."

"Nice to meet you Edgar. Now Jack, take Edgar to his room while I finish up discussing with Agent Carolyn. I expect you to file a full report once you're done. And for the love of god, get this mammal a shower. He smells like an open cemetery."

" **What is he talking about?"**

" _Well, you've been killing mammals all your so called 'life' and never once have you been cleaned. I'm suprised no ones thrown up yet."_

"Yes sir," Jack said.


End file.
